Beginner Abdominal Workout

Having a strong core (abdominals) is super important as we use our abdominals in most everyday activities, even if you don’t realise it at the time.

Your abdominals assist in keeping good posture and to support their opposing muscles: the lower back. Your core is also very important in helping you to keep balance as well as assisting in giving you the strength for everyday activities like picking something heavy up off the ground.

After a request from my friend Samantha for a core workout I thought I would do a little series of them, today I have for you my beginner abdominal workout and over the next two weeks I will bring you an intermediate and advanced abdominal workout.

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If you are anything like me you won’t want to be spending hours on abdominal work, in fact I hate doing abdominal work but I know that it is important. For this reason I have given you four exercises to be completed one after another and the whole set to be completed 3-5 times depending on how you are feeling and the time you have available. 

You will not need any equipment other than yourself and perhaps a mat (a towel will do) since you will be working out on the ground. 

// 20 Crunches
Lye down on the ground on your back, bring your knees up so that your feet are planted firmly on the ground. Bring your hands to just behind your ears (but do not pull on your head, they are simply here for the sake of giving them somewhere to be, so they aren’t flailing around), bring your back slightly off the floor in an upwards motion until you can feel the crunch in your abdominal. You do not need to do a full sit-up, it isn’t necessary. Lower yourself back down to the ground and then repeat. 

// 20 Side Bends
Standing up nice and straight with your arms at your side, gently bend sideways until you feel the pull in the side of your abdominal (these are called your obliques), then return to standing position and change to the other side. You can do this holding a weight as well if you have something, you can even use a full drink bottle or can of food.

// 20 Supermans
Begin on the ground on all fours like a dog. Keep your back nice and straight and then reach one arm out in front of you and the opposite leg out behind you. It should look almost as though you are flying through the sky like superman [hence the name!], hold for a second and then bring your arm and leg back to the all fours position and then swap to the other arm and leg.

// 20 Second Plank
Lye face down on the ground, bring your arms up so that you are resting on your forearms. You hands should be forming a fist and the thumbs facing up towards the roof. Then bring yourself up on to your toes keeping a nice straight back. Depending on how strong your core is, you may have to break the plank up into smaller sections. The key here is a nice straight back and keeping your abdominal nice and tight.

Repeat 3 – 5 times.

Beginner Abdominal Workout Video

Are you a fan of abdominal workouts??